Nor the "Say Whoopee" sung by Eddie Cantor in their co starring movie " AliBaba goes to town", the myth of a movie company filming an "Arabian Nights" in Baghdad. A hobo, an Eddie Cantor role , comes across the production crew .
*Cruising for approbation, off his diet of food stamps and welfare, he fells asleep into a dream......his Arabian Nights metamorphosing as Tony Martin’s "Ali Baba goes to town".
II
Seventy years later, while riding the B 11 toward New China Town, the third world of passengers- Arabs Indians Puerto Ricans Israelis Italians Irish Hasidic Jews Palestinians South Americans Russians (Russian Parkway) Afro Americans. . Cell phone blackberries, I phones, the electronic spectrum smart phone, an app ignited the bus’s standing room only ...
"Did you hear, neighbor.? About the swimmer Michael Phelps breaking the Olympic record wkth 19 medals. ..you’re holding onto my hurdy gurdy knapsack,neighbor."
"The Fab Five winning the gold in gymnastics for the first time since 196."President Obama giving the word from Air Force One."
"No but your karma comes close neighbor. TonyMartin, a genie of a genius, from the Golden age of tinsel town passed on this morning at the age of 97. In West Los Angeles."
"An immortal soul, neighbor......natural causes.." said the bus driver, overhearing the conversation. "Next stop 39th Street. Jackie Gleason’s ("Ralph Kramden)" depot. "
III
Time ticking by thru the seventy years of a flashback Tony Martin in the aftermath of his split with Alice Faye, he and his frau of some sixty years to come, Cyd Charisse, were dining with Jack Benny and his Mary Livingston.
""Tony , who’sd your dentist?. With your smile, showing your teeth, you transcend radio. When televisdion arrives, you’ become the largest star in Hollywood’s galaxy.. Believe me."said the comic and violinist, nudging his second banana, Mary Livingstone .
"We’re still in the dark agess. Bobby Breen Dick Powell, Dennis Day,"claimed Jack Benny.
"Jack, I’m not Jack Teagarden. You stereotype my voice," said the twenty four year handsome crooner, flashing that fourteen carat smile, which he attributes to his genetic Russian biology.
"With luck and determinism, you heroic warm sound could go far," said the comedian. Your exs’ Alice Faye’s Phil Harris holds the cards. Tony. It’s his wave length with Paley and CBS. Phil has the magnetisdm with Bobby Dick or Dennis. It’s his call." said the Hillcrest Country club crony of George Burns at the gin rummy table and the "fore" on the 18 hole course..,
Playing alongside Irving F, his brother in law, and Alan W., Jack Benny was in his element. If the Gods of show business meaning Phil Harris ast the bandstand was the maestro,then Tony Martin had to cast his lot with Eddie Cantor, the silver screen of those depreession laden thirties.
FDR’s New Deal, the WPA projects, hawking nickel sodas for a markup of two cents from the iced baby carriage, the sodas bought from Meyer Lansky’s warehouse in Brownsville, Bugsy Siegal, the "gamer", to escort the watering tour in East Flatbush
"A nickel a pickle," cried the baby carriage wheeler dealer. The sweaty construction laborers, hailing the 9 year old kid. "Ya got a root beer kiddo?".,. .
Within the hour glass... the unyielding sands of time , measuring the moment, Tony Martin and Cyd Carrise threw the dice.... celluloid notoriety singing and dancing success, drank to their good fortune.
"Tony Cyd..Mary and I drink to your fulfillment and happiness.. May the Gods watch over your voice ..it’s agility.....thru the ages."
IV
"So Major Fenton," said Friedman into his role of the Devil’s advocate, comparable to Stanley Kristalball from East Flatbush. His father delivering the mail until his retirement. Ssaturday deliveries and Hugh deficits forced him to rethink his route thru changing neighborhoods.
Hundred year old patrons reviving their souls in nursing homes. The Midwood movie p[alace on Avenue J becoming an ophthalmology campus for Marvin Kochman’s KLM heirs."You get the drift?"
Once the marquee featured Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake "This gun for hire". The fantasy becoming the reality in the Auro, Colorado Batman massacre, the once San Diego nerd exhausting his failed post graduate options went on a ballistic tirade at the Batrman’s midnight showing....his calls for "help" University shrink chiatrist tried to farm it out, while the Batman producer Mister Aragon shared insights on the scenario.’s innardss for an hour vis a vi Bell telephone.....
Morphing as the Joker, Batman’s nemesis, dying his once curly locks red, he mowed down his captive audience.
V
Tony Martin’s hour glass of the sands of time interwined with trhe saupper club circuit in Brooklyn’s Ocean Parkway. Tony Viola bought the Parkville and booked Tony Martin Frank Sinotra, hiring Joel Adler as the tennis pro for the six clay courts.,bordering the Macdonald Avenue cemetery........thru Bay Parkway, 20th Avenue, FDR High School.Thru the ages," was Jack Benny’s prophetic toast to the handsome singing matinee idol, and his dancincing frau (Fred Astaire’s partner, apres Ginger Rogers) that evening sixz decades earlier ,neither knowing he would flow into perpetual motion like a whirlwind of an Olympian
singing tumbler in the London Olympics.
98 years old .... to live thru the 20th t century Our own freshman blue eyes first sighting his ballading at the post World War 2 USO encampment on Sunset Boulevard,,,his relaxed stance, his soul transcending the romantic vocals of "Strangers on a train:."His own inexorable karma of determinism.
The city that never sleeps, August 2, 2012
